Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/448091
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 18 JANUARY 2015 15 proach, he points out how the La- bour Party filed a complaint with the Broadcasting Authority over PBS, just as he himself inherited the broadcasting portfolio from Manuel Mallia. "If that's not proof that PBS is working differently now, I don't know what is. Now you have both Labour and PN complaining that the national station is biased against them…" But is that really such a new thing? As far as I can remember, the Broad- casting Authority has always been flooded by complaints from the par- ties, to the point that it had to deal with these complaints at the expense of everything else. This points to- wards another inherent problem with national broadcasting: the cen- trality of local politics. It is not just when it comes to partisan politics that impartiality is needed: there is a question of media ethics which exists independently of political par- ties. There are concerns with bias in advertising, for instance. It's not as though the conditions of 'impartial- ity' are met simply because two polit- ical parties are happy with how they are presented on state television… So isn't it a case that we have per- verted the role of the BA, and turned it into a…? Bonnici finishes the question for me: "… a referee between the two parties? Yes, unfortunately that is what the BA has become. A referee to decide whether that programme dedicated five seconds more or less to one party..." As with the judiciary, Bonnici can- not personally intervene with inter- nal affairs of the BA. But as minister, he is still politically responsible for the sector. So what does he intend to do about it? "I think it ultimately depends on the parties themselves. I would like to appeal to them to keep in mind that the world is not only about Joseph Muscat and Simon Busuttil. There are other things to talk about than those two respectable gentlemen. But in the meantime, some struc- tural changes need to be done. One of the things I would really, really like to see at PBS is the appointment of a cultural editor. MaltaToday is in fact a flagship of this concept: you have a cultural editor, Teodor Reljic. The first thing I read in that newspaper is his column. And then politics…" Similarly, he adds, there is need of a cultural editor at PBS. "All the peo- ple involved in culture here are ex- cited at the prospect of finally having a platform to showcase their artistic talent. TVM 2 will start to broadcast opera, prima serata, at 8.30pm on Wednesday. PBS has entered into deals with La Scala and other major theatres. So while I won't interfere in the internal running of the station, I can and will intervene legislatively, to see that PBS gets its own cultural editor. It's something I have the right and duty to do, and I will do it…" This is great news for opera buffs, but it doesn't exactly answer the question of how the imminent re- form will guarantee more autonomy for TVM. This brings me to another aspect of Bonnici's portfolio: jus- tice and the law courts. I won't go into all the ramifications – last year I interviewed Bonnici specifically on this issue – but there is one aspect where the two areas converge. Like the Broadcasting Authority, the law courts are supposed to be autono- mous and immune to political in- terference. Yet Malta's Constitution empowers the Cabinet of Ministers to directly appoint judges and mag- istrates. How does this fit in with an arm's- length policy? And at the risk of casting a shadow over the judiciary, there is also a perception out there that justice ministers appoint judges and magistrates specifically to strike a political balance. To give an exam- ple: over the past 25 years the choice almost always fell to Nationalist min- isters. The first time it fell to a La- bour minister, one of the appointees happened to be a former editor of a Labour newspaper: Wenzu Mintoff. Couldn't this be interpreted as an attempt to redress a perceived politi- cal imbalance in the judiciary? "No, absolutely not. Once a person is appointed a judge, he has the guar- antees afforded to him by the Consti- tution of independence and imparti- ality. You have to judge a person by the security of tenure he occupies. I am sure that Wenzu Mintoff will be impartial. When he was appointed to the bench, the deputy president of the Chamber of Advocates, Ian Spiteri Bailey [a former Nationalist candidate] publicly expressed confi- dence that he would exert impartial- ity as a judge. I have no doubt of that myself..." But wasn't it also bound to be inter- preted as a political decision? He shrugs. "I took the decision, and by all accounts Mintoff is doing a good job. But I disagree with your question that there is political inter- ference in the judiciary. I think, de- spite all the criticism levelled at judg- es by the public – some of it correct, some not – no judge or magistrate has ever blatantly decided a case in order to please a government." Decided, perhaps not. But what about the case concerning the Na- tional Bank, which dragged on for 38 years? The case was against the government, and was consistently deferred for almost four decades. Is Bonnici suggesting that politics had nothing to do with that? And it has also been observed that the case fi- nally reached closure immediately when there was a change of govern- ment… "I have heard comments that there was politics involved, but remem- ber that the magistrate who decided the National Bank case was also the magistrate who dismissed the pro- hibitory injunction regarding the Casino…." Bonnici argues that the same man who vindicated the government's ar- guments regarding the casino tender, also found the government guilty in the National Bank case. "Sometimes I think people read too much into these things…" Interview Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has inherited public broadcasting from the spoils of Manuel Mallia's former ministry. Can he deliver on promises of impartiality where all others have failed? broadcasting beast PHOTO BY CHRIS MANGION